In Washington's Colony Restaurant sat raven-haired Gwendolyn Detre de Surany Cafritz, all but unnoticed as she toyed with a martini, chain-smoked Kools, and lunched with her sister. Just four china-crammed tables away sat another longtime queen bee of Washington society, Perle Skirvin Mesta, the old hostess with the mostest. She had with her a single friend.
At that same time last week, out on a rolling estate at McLean. Va., Attorney General and Mrs. Robert Kennedy were having a luncheon in honor of Poet Robert Frost. The guest list was an exclusive nine people, and the bright talk ranged from Francis Thompson's The Hound of Heaven to Astronaut John Glenn's identity with God in outer space.
The contrast between the Bobby Kennedy function and the glittering Coventry into which Gwen and Perle found themselves was perfect evidence of the fact that the old order of Washington society has changed, giving way to the New Frontier's New Society.
Presidents' wives and presidential families can always dominate Washington society. But they often haven't wanted to bother. Perle Mesta nailed down the top hostess title in Harry Truman's day because Bess Truman abdicated; in the Eisenhower years. Gwen Cafritz reigned because Mamie Eisenhower didn't care to. But Jacqueline Kennedy does care. Not since the time of Frances Cleveland, 65 years ago, has a First Lady cared nearly so much. And what she and Jack Kennedy care about is not the money and power that mattered in the Mesta-Cafritz days, but brains, wit, accomplishment, and that favorite New Frontier quality—"vigah."
New Pecking Order. Gwen and Perle are not surrendering without a struggle. To housewarm her new apartment, Perle threw convention-sized receptions three evenings in a row. But alas, about the biggest names she bagged were Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Among the few White House officials who came was Jack Kennedy's physician, Dr. Janet Travell. Gwen Cafritz has not done much better. Last fall, at her annual Supreme Court party, not a single justice snowed up. More recently, she did manage to snare Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges for an evening "just in the middle of that steel crisis." But her party honoring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was a real bomb; the Maxwell Taylors and Ormsby-Gores were there, but the affair was mostly populated by people like the ambassador from Iceland. So bad have things got that the old rivals, Perle and Gwen, now attend one another's parties.
Under the New Frontier, there is a whole new social pecking order. At the very top. of course, are the Kennedys. Jack and Jackie. Bobby and Ethel. Sarge and Eunice. Steve and Jean. Then comes a coterie of close friends: Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Bartlett. Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Spaulding. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland Evans Jr.. Sir David and Lady Ormsby-Gore. Senator and Mrs. John Sherman Cooper (he is a Republican, but Lorraine Cooper is expert at holding the intimate, 20-person, candlelight parties that the New Society is fond of). Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Alsop. William Walton. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Fay. the Radziwills. Mrs. John R. Fell. Mr. and Mrs. Earl E. T. Smith. Next come some of the Administration's working stiffs: Defense Secretary and Mrs. Robert McNamara. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Schlesinger Jr.. the Walt Rostows and the McGeorge Bundys.